


When It Matters

by stubbornessissues



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/M, Falling In Love, Hurt/Comfort, POV Leo Fitz, Post-Season/Series 02, Romantic Friendship, Season/Series 01, Season/Series 02, Self-Doubt, Skye growing as a person, just a little bit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-12
Updated: 2015-11-12
Packaged: 2018-05-01 07:51:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,419
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5198051
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stubbornessissues/pseuds/stubbornessissues
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Understanding all the ways you fall in love seems like an impossible task.</p>
            </blockquote>





	When It Matters

**Author's Note:**

> Just a little something from a tumblr prompt- The five times Leopold Fitz fell in love with Skye/Daisy Johnson

**__ ** **_1._ **

                    She’s Skye: Smart, witty, beautiful, brave **_& _** brimming with  
                    life. She’s gripping his arm tight while her eyes are wide  
                    **_& _** glued to the laptop, precariously balanced on their bent  
                    legs. Her touch, the instant it occurs is all Fitz knows- he’s  
                    hyper-aware of the warmth of her skin **(** against his it is  
                    a fire hot  flame **)**   **_&   _**cherishes the way her grip feels  
                    perfectly firm to him; neither too tight nor loose enough  
                    to let him go- the plot of the movie that has made Skye  
                    so eager to touch in the first place, he has forgotten.  
                    Not that Fitz had been paying it much heed. The better  
                    part of an hour already had been spent with shoulders  
                    pressed together so that the pair might share the laptop  
                    equally.

 _❝_ I really hate you _❞_

She utters in a single breath **_& _** digs her shoulder against  
                    his. There’s not a single doubt that she’s joking **(** this stems  
                    from the way her pink lips curl about the words **)** nor  
                    that she’s referring only to his choice in film.

                         _❝_ You’re just embarrassed that I made you jump earlier _❞_

His comment invokes a pillow to the face **_& _** defensive  
                     words from his movie partner, which leads to a small  
                     elbow in the ribs courtesy of Fitz, followed by a swift  
                     blow from a different pillow. They trade hits back **_& _** forth  
                     with way too many laughs filling up their throats **_& _** love  
                     burned into their aggression.

 **__ ** **_2._ **

                     She’s Skye: Smart, witty, beautiful, brave **_& _** her life is  
                     fading away right before him. There’s fire in his throat  
                     **_& _** too many bodies pressing into the medical pod, each  
                     emanating with utter horror as they do nothing but watch  
                     Skye’s body seize.  
                       ** _& _** then it’s over; they all stop shouting, the  
                      heart monitor slows down **_& _** Simmons can stroke the  
                      brown hair tainted with blood.  Relief floods across  
                      them like a tidal wave. Shoulders sag, breaths escape  
                      **_& _** eyes linger upon her form before each person traipses  
                      out, now that they can rest easy. **(** Fitz will not until her  
                      eyes open, but for now, it’s enough that she’s not  
                      struggling to breathe. **)**

 _❝_ I’ll stay with her… _❞_

Jemma clearly carries the burning desire to talk to Coulson,  
                      so that they might know what it is that just happened **(** Fitz  
                      only cares for the fact that it worked **)** ** _& _** she nods her  
                      relief at him while they shuffle to trade places.

                      He falls back immediately into the only chair in the room, eyes  
                      incapable of leaving her body **_&   _**suddenly he’s utterly  
                      exhausted. The past few days seem to rush to catch up with  
                      him the moment his feet are out from under him **_& _** Fitz just feels  
                      so damn heavy, like the air is pressing on him. Yet Skye’s chest  
                      rises **_& _** falls as though she’s sleeping, normally, like she’d only  
                      passed out on the sofa during a movie.

                                         _Skye will live. **Skye will live.**_

He’s missing her like she’s left them all for a trip back to LA.  
                     He thinks, almost bitterly, that if this were a movie, this is  
                     his moment to confess some unknown love for her while  
                     holding her hand **_& _** begging her to come back.

                     He doesn’t have to do this, because already she’s on her  
                     way back **_& _** when Skye returns he will hug her as tight  
                     as he dares **_& _** continue to find a new way to silently love  
                     her with every day that they have.

 **__ ** **_3._ **

                                          _❝_ I never got a chance to say _❞_

                        _❝_ I never got a chance to say _❞_

 _❝_  Sorry _❞_  
                           _❝_  Thank you _❞_

Fitz who is pressing trembling fingers against the cold  
                     glass of a beer bottle, the drink barely touched, looks to  
                     her with such wide, blue eyes. They try to meet in the  
                     middle **_& _** understand how their _not quites_ had come out  
                     so starkly different.

He watches the familiar frown come in to play, tilts his head  
                     at her as though daring her to question his apology, **(** but  
                     Fitz would never press her like that **)** says nothing, only  
                     does what he always does **_& _** waits.

 _❝_ Ward mentioned… _❞_

Her head tilts forward to peer inside the bottle she nurses  
                     as though she might find some great secret in there before  
                     she looks back to him **_& _** it’s his turn to search his drink for  
                     his destiny.

                         _❝_ He told me about your trip to the Tahiti bunker, said  
                                 that you **_& _** Simmons did everything you could…  
                                      **_& _** you found out where it was, didn’t you?  _❞_

He folds his legs tighter beneath him like he’s still in school  
                     **_& _** fails to meet her eyes.    He cannot accept thanks for  
                     such small things when there is still guilt wrapping about  
                     him like a new layer of skin made from lead.

 _❝_ ** _& _** May mentioned that everyone seemed to fancy  
                               blaming themselves….  
                           I know how much you’re probably hating  
                                                                         yourself right now Fitz… _❞_

 _❝_ I should have gone in there with you… _❞_

 _❝_ Then Quinn would have shot us both _❞_

He looks to her then, arguments forming as a fast as Skye  
                     can fight them.

 _❝_ I could have let him shoot at me while you took  
                               him out with a Night-night gun. Better me than you. _❞_

 _❝_ Don’t Fitz.Don’t ever do that. _❞_

There isn’t a single trace of levity in her tone.

 _❝_ Don’t ever think I, or anyone else here cares about  
                                 you less. I get it- because I am _glad_ it was me that  
                                 chose to go in there **_& _** I’d probably do it again in a  
                                      heartbeat if it stopped you doing what I did. _❞_

 **_~~4~~ _ ** **_._ **

                   He hurtles into the world far too sharp **_& _** he feels a million  
                   things pressing against him, his heart races, all he knows  
                   are unfamiliar colours in an unfamiliar place **_& _** he’s coughing  
                   but can’t quite because there’s a tube down his throat ****_&  
                   _ his hands are unable to rip it out.            For a stark moment  
                   Fitz has forgotten everything- he cannot work out his limbs  
                   or where he is or what’s happened - _& _ he thinks he might  
                   have been on a mission that ended badly, _a g a i n._

He registers a squeak- dimly he knows it to be shock or  
                   surprise-  but he’s too enshrouded in his own blind panic  
                   to take it as anything but a noise.

                         _Warm hands…_  
                                                        **A shout  
                                                                            ~~endless beeping~~**

❝ You’re okay-       it’s okay.        Oh my god I can’t believe you’re finally awake! ❞

                  He knows that voice. It’s familiar.      He knows there’s a word  
                  for the person… for who it belongs to- he feels for it- feels for  
                  the way to formulate a question as colours settle about him.  
                  Fitz waits for clarity, that familiar draining that follows waking  
                  up.

                     ❝  Fitz, hey, hey Fitz.  Hang on, Jemma’s coming❞

                 _Warm._ He remembers that touch, that sensation as something  
                 important.    Familiar.         He remembers something limitless _&  
                 _ blue with the potential to be dark or light.      

              ❝ Do you know who I am?     Hey, can you even hear me? ❞

**_Skye_ **

                He wants to reach for the only thing he remembers, her name  
                blares through his mind like a siren **_& _** he’s pressing down a  
                million warm feelings with his sheer panic. 

                         She’s so far away **_& _** he’s acutely aware that he’s  
                         failed in every attempt to reach for her hands now.

                They brush at his face, rush through his hair **_& _** he feels that  
                she wants to engulf him in a rib cracking hug. It’s an electric  
                current in her skin, passing on to him.

 **__ ** **_5._ **

                She’s Daisy Johnson: Smart, witty, beautiful, brave **_&  
                _** no longer a lonely little girl hurled into their lives. She’s  
                strong **_& _** sure when she smirks at him, her palms slowly  
                rising in false defeat to the man pressed behind Fitz  
                digging a gun into his neck- so this one at least knows  
                what he’s doing- ****_& _ Fitz, even with electricity zipping  
                down his spine _& _ his veins alive with adrenaline, smirks  
                right back at her.

                A rush that feels almost like a breath passes him by safely  
                before there’s something slamming his back **_& _** the weight  
                of the mobster lifts from him to slam into the floor several  
                feet away.

                       _❝_   Somebody order a bodyguard? _❞_

He’s not sure there’s ever been something moreglorious  
                than the sight of her, clad in her new outfit, gauntlets he’s  
                made for her claiming her wrists, **_& _** honestly smiling.

                          _❝_ Just in time by the looks of it too _❞_

Daisy toes the pistol away from the man’s outstretched **_&  
               _** straining hand before slamming rubber soles upon the flesh.

 _❝_ What were you looking for? _❞_

She calls to him with such a casual tone, as though she didn’t  
               have a dangerous man pinned beneath her boot. Fitz is already  
               back to searching **_& _** needs to be asked twice **(** it’s not because  
               he likes how power suits her **)**

 


End file.
